Jean-Pierre Léaud To Receive Honorary Palme d’Or – Cannes

The 400 Blows star Jean-Pierre Léaud made his first appearance on the Croisette at age 14 in François Truffaut‘s 1959 debut. Now, 57 years later, he will be the recipient of the Cannes Film Festival’s honorary Palme d’Or. Léaud joins such previous recipients as Agnès Varda, Clint Eastwood, Manoel de Oliveira, Woody Allen and Bernardo Bertolucci. The award will go to Léaud at the Closing Ceremony on May 22. Prior to that, a Special Screening of Albert Serra’s The Death Of Louis XIV will be screened on May 19 with Léaud, who plays the Sun King, in attendance.

A New Wave staple, Léaud also worked with Truffaut in 1962’s Antoine and Colette, in 1968’s Stolen Kisses, 1970’s Bed And Board and 1979’s Love On The Run. His collaborations with Jean-Luc Godard began in 1965 with Masculin Féminin, and went on to include La Chinoise (1967) as well as Pierrot Le Fou and Alphaville.

Léaud’s other credits include Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris, Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 and Jean Eustache’s cult 1973 film La Maman Et La Putain. Since then, he has worked with such contemporary auteurs as Aki Kaurismäki, Olivier Assayas, Lucas Belvaux, Philippe Garrel, Bertrand Bonello and Tsai Ming-liang.